Multiple Sclerosis and Headaches

I’ve read your comments enough times to realize that we’re likely over due for a discussion about headaches, particularly migraine headaches and multiple sclerosis.

Many have made statements, in comments left on other general topics, of experiencing migraine headaches along with their other MS symptoms. Some state that they’ve experienced these most of their lives while others have only gotten these monster headaches after they experienced MS symptoms or were diagnosed.

The topic of migraine is a difficult one for medical science to explain in general. Terms such as “cluster headaches,” “sick-headaches,” “ocular migraine” and “vascular headaches” are bantered about the medical community within a cloud of certain mystery.

Even the National MS Society states that “…headache is not a common symptom of MS…” and then goes on to say that one research study showed headache to be twice as common in people living with MS than a matched group without MS.

Go figure!

As many as a third of people living with MS had prior diagnosis of migraine and a family history of migraine seems to be twice as high in people diagnosed with MS than the general population.

I had the occasional migraine (maybe three or four) in my pre-MS days. Now, I get them – mostly of the ocular variety – a few times per year. In fact, as I began to recover from a nasty cold last weekend, I had a real whopper which lay me out for several hours Sunday and sucked up nearly 14 hours of sleep that night!

If I catch them early, I use a prescription called Maxalt that works wonders for me! The thing is, I have these headaches so rarely (relative to my other MS symptoms) that I often forget to have the script refilled. Large doses of ibuprofen can help me as well, if taken early enough.

Along with the pain of migraine, visual distortion, sensitivity to light and/or sound, nausea and fatigue are common accompaniments to these headaches.

I’d be interested, as I’m sure would the entire Life With MS community, to hear your experiences with what we’ll just call the “MS headache.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevis Gleason

Trevis L. Gleason is a food journalist and published author, an award-winning chef and culinary instructor who has taught at institutions such as Cornell University, New England Culinary Institute and...read more